Rob Lowe Deleted A Controversial Joke He Made About Elizabeth Warren

Getty Image

Rob Lowe came under fire Saturday after he made a joke about Elizabeth Warren. The senator had just announced her presidential candidacy, prompting cheers from supporters. The news also inspired, shall we say, questionable Native American jokes, from the president of the United States and, perhaps less predictably, from a Parks and Recreation alum who once made a sex tape with an underage girl.

The actor and ageless time lord chimed in Saturday afternoon, in a now deleted tweet that lived long enough to put him at the top of Twitter trends through at least Sunday morning. “Elizabeth Warren would bring a whole new meaning to Commander in ‘Chief,’” the tweet read, referring to her claims of distant Native American ancestry that have long been mocked by the country’s sitting commander-in-chief.

https://twitter.com/taoistmaoist/status/1094470460568469505

It didn’t go over well. Lowe was even called out by no less than actress and original One Day at a Time star Valerie Bertinelli.

As mentioned, Trump made his own Warren tweet. Usually he just calls her “Pocahontas,” to cheers from his supporters. This time, he threw in an apparent joke about the Trail of Tears, making light of the deaths of thousands of Native Americans. It arrived mere weeks after he did a similar gag about the Native American massacre at Wounded Knee.

Unlike the president, Lowe apologized for his joke, writing, “I deleted my Elizabeth Warren tweet. It was a joke and some peeps got upset, and that’s never my intention. On the GOOD side: I just got to use the Oxford comma!”

Lowe’s tweet arrived soon after another online controversy surrounded another Parks and Rec alum: Chris Pratt was called out by actress Ellen Page for attending a church that is flagrantly anti-LGBTQ. And then there’s Aziz Ansari, who’s been mounting a quiet comeback after claims that he’s been too sexually forward with women.

But back to Lowe: Did social media forgive him? Was making an Oxford comma joke do the trick? Let’s find out!

First, that’s not an Oxford comma, as many angry grammarians pointed out.

Some altered Lowe’s Wikipedia page.

https://twitter.com/lee_g_b/status/1094493208329875456/photo/1

Others dug up a photo of him with no less than Sarah Huckabee Sanders.

https://twitter.com/JoeInDallas1/status/1094483752150073344

In fact, Lowe has a bit of a Republican history.

https://twitter.com/HerRoyalRedness/status/1094497785909530624

This crushed fans of The West Wing.

Others reminded us that, these days, the stuff Lowe pulled is all around us.